In recent weeks news stories have been written on the impact of minimum wage hikes in places like Seattle, Los Angeles, and now New York State. A few interesting items to note stemming from these reports:

In Seattle, where the minimum wage is now $15 per hour, some workers are asking their employers for less hours so that they still qualify for public subsidies, like rent, food stamps and health care

There are employees now making less, if you include benefits, than what they were making before the hike. In some cases employers are no longer offering 401(k) plans or paid vacations in order to instead cover the costs of increased wages

Some tipped employees are also making less than before, especially in restaurants where customers are not only facing higher prices on meals, but also are not as inclined to tip a worker making $15 per hour

In Los Angeles, the unions that pushed the City Council to approve a higher minimum wage have now gone back seeking exemptions for union members because the higher wages are forcing public and private sector layoffs.

Last year a task force was created to study the low wage, service worker industry in an attempt to quantify what a minimum wage increase would mean to employers and their employees. A subsequent piece of legislation was introduced to increase Delaware’s minimum wage to $10.25 per hour by 2019. Debate on this bill is expected in 2016.